League city 77573: The League City Official Website!

TSHA | League City, TX

By:
Diana J. Kleiner

Revised by:
Joyce J. Zongrone

Type:
General
Entry

Published:
1952

Updated:
August 25, 2022

League City is located within the Greater Houston metropolitan area and the Galveston Bay area on the south shore of Clear Lake. State Highway 3 and U. S. Interstate 45 run through the city. It is the largest city in Galveston County. Humans inhabited Clear Creek and the Galveston Bay area possibly as far back as 9,000 B.C. The last American Indian group on Clear Creek was the Akokisa (or Orcoquiza) who occupied the region from Galveston Bay north to present-day Conroe, Texas. The first Anglo to own property in the region of present-day League City, Father Miguel Muldoon, who purchased the land in 1831 part of Stephen F. Austin’s colony. John Robert Derrick received 640 acres of land on the south side of Clear Lake in 1839. He built the family cabin for his wife and five children at the site where Clear Creek empties into Clear Lake, and they moved in during 1842. They were among the first settlers in the Clear Creek community.

 In 1854 George Washington Butler (at age nine) came from Louisiana with his family and the Coward and Perkins families and settled at the junction of Cowards Bayou just past Chigger Creek (site of present-day Friendswood, Texas). In 1858 Henry Holmes and A. H. Waterman formed a brickyard—the first business in the community that became League City. The Holmes and Waterman Brickyard, 120 acres on Clear Creek, was located on the current site of Fairview Cemetery, established 1900. The city has two other historic cemeteries. Magnolia Creek Cemetery, the final resting place of Butler, Perkins, and Coward family members, was established in 1855 and is sometimes referred to as the Butler Cemetery. Magnolia Cemetery, an African American cemetery, was established in 1896.

The Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad was completed from Virginia Point to Houston and passed through League City in 1859. The two-mile trestle bridge linking the mainland at Virginia Point to Galveston was completed in 1860. In 1873 George Washington Butler bought thirty-four-acres from Henry B. Andrews, an investor in the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad. The community became known as the Butler Ranch and Cattle Station, located on the south side of Clear Creek, and soon developed into a passenger and mail-pick-up and drop-off point. A post office under the name of Clear Creek was established in 1874. Butler introduced and raised Brahman cattle. In 1887 a 200-acre poor and convict farm was established in League City. Elderly residents who had no means to care for themselves lived in cottages surrounded by gardens tended by the convicts. After 1890 the early settlers turned to farming. Japanese farmers immigrated to the area in 1903 and began cultivating rice (see RICE CULTURE). After World War I they switched to truck farming. In 1923, thirty Italian families arrived in the area and began raising vegetables.

John Charles “J. C.”  League, a Galveston businessman, bought land out of the Muldoon survey in the early 1890s and changed the name of the town from Clear Creek to League City. He laid out a townsite and provided land for the first school, later named ‘The Little Green Schoolhouse.” Straw Hall, also known as Stragglers’ Hall, and the International Hotel (1894–1905) accommodated the city’s first guests. General stores, a saloon, a fig factory, the Schenck family bakery, and other businesses followed. The Galveston hurricane of 1900 destroyed the original bridge over Clear Creek at Garson’s Landing at the end of Kansas Street, the main road between Houston and Galveston until State Highway 3 was built in 1939.

In 1909 the first brick commercial structure in town, the two-story Butler Building (restored as Butler’s Courtyard in 2002), housed the first bank, the Citizens State Bank, a drugstore, a doctor’s office, a real estate and insurance office, and a hardware store, with apartments on the second floor. By 1913 the weekly League City News was published. By 1914 League City was a dynamic community with a population of 500. The town was serviced by four railroads—the Galveston, Houston and Henderson; the International-Great Northern; the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad; and the Galveston-Houston Electric Railroad—resulting in a thriving commercial district. In 1915 Kilgore Lumber Company opened (and still operated in the 2020s). During World War I troops camped at League City. The Lawrence Broom and Mop Factory opened in 1927.

In 1931 the population was 800, and the town had thirty-five businesses. The League City Fire Department was formed in 1939, and by 1946 the Humble Oil Tank Farm had been constructed in nearby Webster. The population stood at 1,341 in 1950 and increased to 2,622 in 1960. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration began construction of the Manned Spacecraft Center (later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center) in 1961 on the north shore of Clear Lake, and the facility became a local employer. Population figures continued to rise, from 16,578 in 1980 to 45,444 in 2000 and 83,560 in 2010. In 2022 the population was 112,129.

Attractions in League City include League Park, Helen Hall Library, Butler’s Courtyard, West Bay Common School Children’s Museum, and a number of historic homes. The city is home to several waterside resorts, including South Shore Harbor Resort and Conference Center, and the Clear Lake region is touted as the third largest boating destination in the United States.

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• Bibliography

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• Published

Deborah Gammon, Historic Preservation Chair, Sam Houston Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Interview by Joyce J. Zongrone, March 27, 2022. Samuel Butler Graham and Ellen Newman, Galveston Community Book: A Historical and Biographical Record of Galveston and Galveston County (Galveston: Arthur H. Cawston, 1945). Melodey Mozeley Hauch, Vice Chair, Galveston County Historical Commission, Interview by Joyce J. Zongrone, April 2, 2022. S. G. Reed, A History of the Texas Railroads (Houston: St. Clair, 1941; rpt., New York: Arno, 1981). Judy Warco, League City: A History from Its Beginnings to 1912 (League City, Texas: Quality Printing, 1982). Heather Green Wooten, Ph.D., compiler, “History of League City,” City of League City (https://leaguecitytx.gov/1419/History-of-League-City), accessed August 23, 2022.

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Diana J. Kleiner
Revised by
Joyce J. Zongrone,
“League City, TX,”
Handbook of Texas Online,
accessed February 13, 2023,
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/league-city-tx.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

TID:
HEL06

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Original Publication Date:

1952

Most Recent Revision Date:

August 25, 2022

Related Book(s):

Texas Almanac 2022–2023